Posts Tagged ‘big industry’

It’s odd that President Obama, purportedly an admirer of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, doesn’t follow FDR’s approach to helping the country recuperate from Depression. FDR precisely described who did us wrong, and guess what, it’s the same crowd who did us wrong this time. This nugget from one of FDR’s speeches is as good an example as one could wish for that Obama should be telling the American people right now.

For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up. We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred. I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master.

Beezer here. Hat tip to economist’s view for highlighting this. FDR, a wealthy scion from New York, was never intimidated by his enemies in banking and big industry. He knew many of them personally and he knew they felt one of their own had betrayed them, but he pushed on fearlessly. As a result FDR was re-elected by the widest margin in American history.